Ginger

Monira Alwhaibi et al. (2017) · Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM

This cross-sectional survey of 178 mothers of young children in the Central Appalachian Region of the United States explored how many use herbal remedies and which factors are linked to that use. Herbal remedies are plant-based products taken for health purposes, and they are the most common form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM, health approaches used alongside or instead of conventional care) among American adults. The authors framed the work with the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking, which holds that a person's background, past experiences, mood and beliefs shape where information is sought and, in turn, whether action follows, here the use of herbal remedies. The participants were women aged 18 or older with at least one child under three years of age, living in Central Appalachia and mostly in West Virginia, with a mean age of 31.3 years. They were recruited through social media groups, listserv emails, daycares and physician's offices, and completed an online survey. One item asked whether any herbal remedy had been used in the past six months, with follow-ups on which remedy and which condition. Two new five-point scales captured how often six information sources were used and how strongly herbal remedies were believed to be safe and effective. One-third of the women (33.5%) reported using herbal remedies in the past six months. Fenugreek was the most widely used remedy (35.1%), followed by honey (8.8%), chamomile (5.3%) and ginger (5.3%). The main reasons were stimulating or increasing breast milk production (38.6%) and treating cold or flu symptoms (26.3%). Women with the highest information seeking scores had 3.61 times the odds of using herbal remedies compared with those with the lowest (95% CI 1.433-9.77), meaning that more active information seeking went with more use. Women with the highest belief in herbal safety and efficacy had 4.02 times the odds (95% CI 1.468-9.57). Part-time or unemployed women had 2.98 times the odds of full-time employed women (95% CI 1.05-8.47), while education, income and Appalachian identity showed no association. The internet was the most frequently used information source (mean 3.2 out of 5). The authors conclude that herbal remedy use is common in this region and propose that public health efforts and communication from health care providers could raise awareness of the safety and efficacy of herbal remedies. The survey recorded use and beliefs only; it did not test whether any remedy worked, and safety was not assessed. Limitations include a sample drawn mostly from West Virginia, self-selection in an internet-based survey, self-reported answers open to recall bias, and no data on whether use was regular or occasional. The authors call for further research, including qualitative work, on what health information women seek.

Zhiyong Long et al. (2023) · Frontiers in immunology

Whether the plant compounds often discussed for rheumatoid arthritis — turmeric, green tea, pomegranate, garlic — actually do anything is the question this meta-analysis set out to answer. This review gathered every randomized trial it could find on the question: 47 trials, nearly 3,900 people, fifteen different plant polyphenols, from Iran, China, Korea, Egypt, Japan, Brazil, India and the United States. The clearest picture came from two of them. The first is total glucosides of paeony, an extract of Chinese peony root that is a licensed prescription medicine in China. Twenty-three trials tested it — always added to standard RA drugs like methotrexate, never instead of them. Disease activity scores came down, and so did CRP, ESR and rheumatoid factor, the blood markers doctors track. The most interesting result: people taking it reported *fewer* side effects than people on the standard drugs alone. That fits how it is used clinically — it appears to soften the toll the conventional drugs take on the liver and stomach. The second is curcumin, the yellow compound in turmeric. Five trials, and the same direction: lower disease activity, lower inflammatory markers, no extra side effects. Green tea polyphenols looked promising across two trials. Saffron did not show a clear effect. Everything else — pomegranate, garlic, resveratrol, sesame, cinnamon, ginger, kudzu, cranberry, olive oil, quercetin — rests on one or two small trials apiece, which is encouraging but not yet evidence that bears weight. The honest caveat, which the authors state plainly themselves: the trials disagreed with each other a great deal, most were small, and when the researchers sliced the data by dose and duration some of the headline benefits faded. Nearly all of these were add-on studies. Nobody tested a polyphenol against methotrexate, so the evidence says nothing about replacing a prescribed medication. What it does support is turmeric and peony extract as the best-evidenced candidates, studied as additions to existing treatment rather than replacements for it.

Rodsarin Yamprasert et al. (2020) · BMC complementary medicine and therapies

This randomized, double-blind, controlled trial with 80 adults (ages 18-70, about 70% female) compared ginger (Zingiber officinale) extract against loratadine, a standard non-drowsy antihistamine, for allergic rhinitis (AR) -- an immune reaction to airborne allergens that causes nasal itching, congestion, runny nose, and sneezing, affecting an estimated 400 million people worldwide. Ginger is a spice long used in Thai traditional medicine, and its active compounds 6-gingerol and 6-shogaol have shown anti-allergic activity in lab studies by blocking mast cells, the immune cells that release histamine during an allergic reaction. Antihistamines like loratadine work well but can cause drowsiness and dry mouth. Participants with moderate AR symptoms took either 500 mg of standardized ginger extract or 10 mg of loratadine daily, in identical-looking capsules, for 6 weeks. Researchers tracked nasal symptoms using the Total Nasal Symptom Score (TNSS, rating itching, runny nose, congestion, and sneezing on a 0-12 scale), objectively measured nasal airway size with acoustic rhinometry (a sound-wave-based nasal scan), and assessed quality of life with the 28-item Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (RQLQ). Blood tests and blood pressure checks monitored safety at baseline, week 3, and week 6. Both treatments significantly reduced nasal symptom scores by week 6 (ginger: 7.48 to 3.42; loratadine: 7.38 to 4.11), with no statistically significant difference between them (p=0.276--meaning both worked about equally well). On the nasal airway scan, ginger significantly increased left-nostril airway volume compared to loratadine by week 6 (+0.094 cm3 vs -0.006 cm3, p=0.02--meaning ginger measurably relieved congestion where loratadine did not). Quality-of-life scores improved similarly in both groups across all seven RQLQ domains (p=0.660 at week 6). Side effects differed in kind more than in severity: ginger caused more digestive upset (eructation, or burping, in 72% vs 17% on loratadine), while loratadine caused more drowsiness (25% vs 3%), dizziness, and constipation. Neither treatment affected blood pressure or kidney function; loratadine modestly raised a liver enzyme (ALP) that ginger did not. These results suggest ginger extract works about as well as loratadine for relieving AR symptoms and improving quality of life, with a milder side-effect profile centered on digestion rather than sedation. The trial was short (6 weeks), single-site, and modestly sized (80 enrolled, 72 completing), so larger and longer studies are needed to confirm both the congestion benefit and long-term safety, including the loratadine-associated liver-enzyme signal seen here.

Göktuğ Er et al. (2023) · Medicine

This randomized comparative trial with 70 adults explored whether connective tissue massage (CTM) or classical massage (CM, the "Swedish" style widely used in clinics) works better for chronic mechanical low back pain -- pain and stiffness in the lower back lasting more than 12 weeks with no specific structural cause like fracture or infection. CTM manipulates the skin and underlying fascia with pulling strokes, thought to trigger reflex effects on the autonomic nervous system (the body's automatic regulator of heart rate, blood pressure, and circulation). CM instead strokes and kneads muscle tissue, releasing endorphins and stimulating vascular pressure receptors to ease pain and support autonomic balance. The study compared which method controls pain better and whether either shifts autonomic activity more. Fifty-five participants (28 in the CTM group, 27 in CM, average age around 37) completed the full protocol: a hot pack plus a lumbar stretching and strengthening routine, combined with 20 sessions of their assigned massage over four weeks, five days a week. Pain was tracked on a 10-cm visual analog scale (VAS) at baseline, weekly, post-treatment, and at a six-week follow-up. Heart rate, blood pressure, and skin temperature were measured with standard clinical devices, while disability, quality of life, and sleep quality were tracked with validated questionnaires (Oswestry Disability Index, SF-36, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index). Both massages sharply reduced pain by the end of treatment and kept it low at six weeks (P < .001 for both, meaning the improvement is very unlikely to be chance). CM pulled ahead of CTM only briefly, at the two-week mark (1.90 vs 2.60 cm on the VAS, P = .04, a real but small and temporary difference), with no gap between the techniques at any other checkpoint. Peripheral skin temperature rose significantly in both groups (indicating improved circulation), but heart rate, blood pressure, and deeper trunk temperatures held steady in both. Disability, overall quality of life, and sleep quality all improved substantially and similarly in both groups; the one lasting difference was that CTM patients reported better emotional well-being at six weeks than CM patients (P = .03). No adverse events occurred with either technique. For practitioners and patients, the takeaway is reassuring rather than decisive: both CTM and CM are safe, effective options for chronic low back pain paired with heat and exercise, so the choice can rest on training, preference, or CTM's modest edge in longer-term mood rather than on a clear winner for pain relief. Limitations: one physiotherapist delivered every treatment and assessment (no blinding), the trial ran at a single center, and roughly one in five participants dropped out under the demanding five-day schedule. Future trials against a no-treatment control would clarify how much benefit comes from technique itself.

Yincong Xu et al. (2020) · The Journal of international medical research

Painful periods are one of the most common health complaints among women of reproductive age — affecting anywhere from 16% to 91% — and the standard treatment, anti-inflammatory painkillers like ibuprofen, fails for roughly one in four women. This 2020 meta-analysis pooled the randomized trial evidence for three familiar kitchen herbs: cinnamon, fennel and ginger. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, menstrual pain is understood as cold dampness stagnating in the channels serving the uterus, and all three herbs are classically used to warm the meridians (the body's energy channels) and disperse that cold. The researchers combed four major research databases for randomized controlled trials — the strongest single-study design — where women with primary dysmenorrhea (period pain without an underlying pelvic condition) received one of the herbs or a placebo. Nine trials qualified, covering 647 women, most of them students aged 15 to 25. Seven of the nine trials rated as high quality on standard scoring. The herbs worked. Ginger showed the strongest effect, lowering pain scores by nearly 3 points on a 10-point scale compared with placebo (WMD = 2.902, p < 0.001 — a difference women would clearly feel). Cinnamon lowered pain by about 1.8 points (WMD = 1.815) and was the only herb that also shortened how long the pain lasted (by about 16 minutes per episode, WMD = 16.200). Fennel helped more modestly (WMD = 0.528, p = 0.011). The benefit held when only the highest-quality trials were analyzed, and earlier research has found ginger comparable to ibuprofen and mefenamic acid for this purpose. These effects have a known biological basis: compounds in these herbs (eugenol, gingerols) reduce prostaglandins — the chemicals that trigger the intense uterine cramping behind period pain. Typical study dosages were practical: ginger 250-500 mg capsules three times daily during the first 3-5 days of the period, and cinnamon around 1-3 grams daily for 3 days. The honest caveats: all nine trials were conducted in Iran, samples were small, and results varied considerably between studies — so larger, more diverse trials are needed before firm clinical recommendations. Still, for a low-cost, low-risk option with a plausible mechanism, this is among the better-supported uses of herbal medicine for a specific condition.